Flerovium is a superheavy radioactivechemical element with a very unstable electron configuration. It is most likely a poor metal meaning it melts at a lower temperature than transition metals. Flerovium was first synthesized in a Russian laboratory in 1998. The created element only lasted seconds, enough to prove it exists but not enough time to study it. While Flerovium has no practical everyday use, it is an important step in our knowledge of its properties and bonding of heavy elements. Although it may not serve a purpose to us it is an important task to learn and experiment with elements to possibly help us in the future. Working with these superheavy elements will help us will further developments in chemistry.

Contents

Properties

The physical properties or appearance of Flerovium are not yet know because of its short half life. In addition although not much of its chemical properties are known much has been predicted as a results of several experiments. While not confirmed it is believed that Flerovium is a solid at room temperature. Between the seconds of the lifetime of a Flerovium atom scientists are unable to successfully measure the density of Flerovium. Because it's a heavy element and the great amount of electrons it is probable that Flerovium is quite dense.[1] While physical characteristics are not know it is probable that Flerovium has a silvery metallic because of it's position in the periodic table. [2]

Flerovium has an extremely short half life as a result of how large it is. The expressive amount of electrons in Flerovium result in an unstable condition. 24494Pu is bombarded with 4820Ca to form Flerovium 289 (289114Fl) which only has a half life of 30 seconds. Flerovium 289 emits alpha partials till it decays into element 112 Copernicium. Flerovium 288 (288114Fl) on the other hand has a half life of only 2 seconds. 285114Fl is a byproduct of the decay of 289116Lv lasting only 0.58 milliseconds. As a result of the fast decay rates of Flerovium it is extremely difficult to capture much solid information about the element.[2]

Synthesis

Machinery used for the creation of Flerovium

Because Flerovium is such as heavy element it can not exist naturally because of it's instability. It can be only created artificially by the bombardment of atoms. Only three atoms of Flerovium were ever created by the bombardment of Calcium and Plutonium atoms. The difficulty in creating Flerovium is that it requires 5 billion billion (5 x 1018) atoms of Calcium to bombarded with Plutonium to produce only one Flerovium atom. This resulted in a 40 day long project just to create a single atom of Flerovium.[1]

Even after an atom of Flerovium is created it usually lasts a maximum of only several seconds. While Flerovium 289 (289114Fl) only has a half life of 30 seconds, Flerovium 288 (288114Fl) has an even small half life of 2 seconds. Flerovium can not only be formed by the bombardment of Calcium and Plutonium atoms but also as a byproduct of the decay of element 118 Copernicium. Because Flerovium has such short half lives and is so complex to create it is probable that Flerovium will only exist in laboratories.[2]

Uses

Scientists of Joint Institute for Nuclear Research

Because Flerovium is a synthetic and radioactive element that lasts only seconds it can not be used for everyday purposes. So far it has only been used as a research topic for scientists. By studying this element scientists can learn more about the way atoms work and bond. Because of this synthesis of Plutonium and Calcium scientists have gained knowledge about how heavy elements work and bond. As a result of the difficulties of making Flerovium it will most likely only be used for scientific reasons and nothing more in the future.
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History

In 1998 Flerovium was first synthesized in Dubna, Russia at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. Flerovium 289 was created by the bombardment of plutonium ions with calcium ions. This isotope they created only had a half life of 21 seconds.[4] This is the only time an atom of Flerovium was create by the bombardment of plutonium andh calcium. The other few times Flerovium was created as a byproduct of the decay of other heavier elements. Flerovium was named after the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (also known as the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research). Georgiy N. Flerov is the founder of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in which the element was synthesized.[2] In 2012 the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) officialy renamed from ununquadium to Flerovium in honor of the laboratory it was created in.[5]